Wilson Praises Garden Grove Youth Program

Touring the state to push his proposals for tougher penalties for juveniles, Gov. Pete Wilson on Thursday stopped at Louis Lake High School’s touted Truancy Reduction Center, calling it an exemplary way to curb youth crime.

Speaking to local law enforcement officials, social workers and gang prevention workers, Wilson said juvenile crime can be curbed through prevention, intervention and suppression.

Applauding programs such as the Truancy Reduction Center, which has helped send nearly 500 students back to school, Wilson said truancy is “the surest indicator of present or future criminal activity.”

The center, a joint effort of the Garden Grove Unified School District, the Garden Grove Police Department and Orange County Youth and Family Services, was established in 1994 to stem juvenile crime by targeting truants.

Since the program was launched, about 500 students have been referred to the center, and only about 7% of them have been picked up by police again, said Leah Graber, director of the program.

When they suspect a juvenile should be in school, Garden Grove police officers bring him or her to the center. Once they are confirmed truant, students are offered tutoring and counseling in English, Spanish or Vietnamese, and their parents are notified.

At the center and at the Los Angles Police Department’s Newton Division, Wilson on Thursday unveiled a series of ambitious new bills aimed at stemming juvenile crime.

The 20 proposed bills Wilson supports would, among other things, make all gang-related murders capital crimes, impose a statewide truancy statute for school-aged children, increase prison time for gang members who intimidate victims and witnesses and who recruit new members. They also would allow police to cite truants and require them to appear in court. The Legislature rejected parts of the program last year.

The governor said it’s important that juvenile offenders understand they cannot break the law with impunity.

“When you arrest some youth you can see an escalation in crime from truancy to graffiti to purse snatching to armed robbery and worse,” Wilson said. “When nothing happens, they conclude there is no consequence.”

Garden Grove Police Chief Stan Knee said Wilson’s plan will allow police and social workers to “address problems with kids through intervention rather than in the crowded juvenile courts,” but said the package has the teeth to “an add incentive for hard-core juveniles to change their ways.”

Wilson’s Garden Grove stop was his only Orange County appearance on a three-day trip through the state to promote his program. He is expected in the Inland Empire and the Central Valley today ).